High tech meets traditional match making. Cupid Media specializes in bringing together couples whether it be next-door or halfway across the world. Established in 2000, Cupid is a leading online dating network. In that time, Cupid has helped over 30 million people look for love across the world, covering North and South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. Cupid sites are equipped with the latest and most progressive technology to make online dating an enjoyable and interactive experience.
The marketing team at Cupid Media works in all disciplines - search, social, display. This lends itself well to working with fewer vendors across channels, preferably in one integrated platform. We found this with Marin Software.
What’s impressed me about Marin’s client service team is that they are knowledgeable across all channels (search, social and display). We often work with vendors where they are usually only experts in one particular area. Marin also delivers insights and recommendations that go beyond a typical SaaS partner which shows they have our best interest at heart.
Jason Johnson
Marketing Manager at Cupid Media
Challenge
The challenge for Cupid Media was efficiently and effectively buying media across search, social, and display for their diverse array of business. They operate 30 domains and 500+ publisher accounts across many international publishers. With virtually unlimited sources of inventory, Cupid Media needed a centralized view of their performance metrics in order to compare their results and know where to invest their next dollar.
In addition, Cupid Media needed to make sure its employees were making the best use of their time and talents. To date, its advertising operation has been run in-house with a team of experts using Excel and publisher-provided tools. Cupid’s management team determined that employing a technology partner was the best way for its marketing team to continue scaling the online advertising program. Cupid set out to find the best technology partner for this task, and ultimately decided Marin Software was the right partner to help them continue to execute their cross-channel marketing strategy.
Centralized Cross-channel Stack Improves Workflow and Future Strategies
Marin Software’s platform provided Cupid Media with a one-stop technology stack for its search, social, and display buying needs. Cupid made use of Marin’s bidding tool - Budget Optimizer - to drive down the costs of converting subscribers from free to paid. In addition, Cupid leveraged Marin’s scalable campaign deployment to launch quick tests and syndicate the successful bets to their other lines of business. The ease and speed of campaign management and experimentation allowed Cupid’s marketing team to focus on being strategic in all channels, while relying on automation to execute the rote business tasks.
Bidding Algorithm Finds Users Whose Revenue Contribution is 23% Above Average
Cupid Media optimizes to “free signups” since they operate on a “freemium” business model. Their objective is to convert a portion of those free users into paying subscribers. Marin’s bidding algorithm helped Cupid Media drive 78% more free signups. What’s particularly noteworthy is that these free signups contributed 23% more revenue than Cupid’s average free signup. This indicates that Marin’s bidding algorithm was effective at isolating valuable media buys and acquiring it at highly cost-effective bids. The bid efficiency is evident by the 28% decrease in average cost-per-conversion. In short, Marin’s bidding algorithm delivered Cupid Media more net revenue, on a reduced cost basis. For Cupid Media’s management team, the decision to partner with Marin Software has paid dividends.
Integrated Workflow Across Channels for Quick Testing, Quick Learnings
Beyond bidding and budget automation, Marin Software has enabled Cupid‘s Marketing to move fast, test more ideas and rapidly syndicate the winning ideas to the rest of their business. This workflow is foundational to Cupid’s marketing assembly line. Cupid’s legacy process for campaign management and testing had become overwhelming for the Cupid team and was negatively impacting productivity. Fortunately, Marin’s platform simplified each of these steps enabling Cupid’s team to focus their attention on being strategic and dreaming up new ideas to test, while leaving the rote mechanical tasks for Marin cross-channel automation to execute.
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White paper
PPC for B2B: a Performance Marketing Survey Report for 2023
To help you stay on the leading edge of performance marketing, we surveyed over 300 B2B marketers to uncover actionable insights that will help you improve the performance of your PPC investment. Through a Marin and LinkedIn partnership, we sought out to understand what B2B marketers face right now and how they are dealing with a complicated market. Read the full report to get a better understanding of how B2B marketers are changing their approach this year.
What You'll Learn from the Report:
How budgets have changed through the years 2020 to 2023 and how budgeting complexities affect the work of advertisers this year.
What challenges are most prevalent this year and how other marketers like you are adapting.
The critical role audience targeting plays in your success, especially during a recession, and some interesting trends relating to targeting techniques.
The types of content and campaign management techniques are currently helping advertisers move buyers through the sales funnel.
What paid social or PPC channels are providing the best ROAS or conversions for B2B right now.
5 Performance Max best practices, from a PPC expert
Advertisers are starting to see great success with their Performance Max (PMAX) campaigns. They have been growing in popularity in Google Ads and are now available Globally in Microsoft Ads, too! Many Paid Search managers now consider it best practice to have at least one Performance Max campaign running in their Google Ads account. They are great for finding high-converting customers not only on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) but across all of Google’s other channels like YouTube, Display, Gmail, and Maps.
PMAX campaigns learn as they go. While they take around 6 weeks to mature, they’ll continue to get more efficient over time. That said, there are several ways to speed up their learning process and set up your campaigns for success. Follow these 5 tips to get the best possible results from your PMAX campaigns.
1. Add high-quality creative assets
Adding high-quality assets is one of the most important steps in setting up a successful Performance Max campaign. Advertisers should add a variety of asset types to ensure that their ad can serve on many different channels and placements.
Text assets
Text assets include the headlines and descriptions for your PMAX campaign’s text ads.
First, you will want to add headlines. You can add up to 15, and filling all 15 slots with headline variations will allow you to include more keywords in your copy, which will improve ad quality. Think about the keywords that you would want to target if this were a traditional paid search campaign. Then, incorporate those keywords into your ad copy. The more relevant keywords you include, the higher the likelihood that your ad will serve.
Once you’ve optimized your headlines, you can add up to 4 descriptions. It is best to include a call to action in each of them. Descriptions can have up to 90 characters and it is best to use as many characters as possible to take up more space on the page and include as much relevant information and keywords as you can.
Image assets
Next, let's talk about graphics. There are two different types of graphics to include in a PMAX campaign: Images and Logos. It's best to add multiple variations of each type of asset so that they can appear in a variety of placements with different ideal image sizes. It is important that all images are high-quality.
For image assets, there are three different options to consider:
Landscape image
Landscape assets should have an aspect ratio of 1.91:1, meaning the width should be 1.91 times the height. The minimum size is 600 x 314 pixels, and the recommended size is 1200 x 628 pixels. The maximum file size for a Landscape image asset is 5120 KB.
Square image
Square assets must have an aspect ratio of 1:1, meaning the width and height are equal (it’s a square, after all!) The minimum size is 300 x 300 pixels, and the recommended size is 1200 x 1200 pixels. The maximum file size for a Square image asset is 5120 KB.
Portrait image
Portrait assets must have an aspect ratio of 4:5, meaning the height is equal to ⅘ the width. The minimum size is 480 x 600 pixels, and the recommended size is 960 x 1200 pixels. This asset type doesn’t have a maximum file size limit.
You can include up to 20 images for each type of image asset, and it’s best to provide as many asset variations as possible. While 20 portrait, 20 square, and 20 landscape images are ideal, it’s not always possible to produce that much relevant creative. It’s critical to have at least one of each type of asset in your campaign, but the more, the merrier!
Logo assets
You should also add logo assets to make your brand more recognizable in your ads. The options for logo assets are:
Landscape logo
Landscape logos are horizontal and must have a 4:1 aspect ratio, meaning the width must be four times the height. The minimum size is 512x128 pixels, with a recommended size of 1200x300 pixels. The maximum file size is 5120 KB.
Square logo
Square logos, like their image counterparts, must have a 1:1 aspect ratio. The minimum size is 128x128 pixels, with a recommended size of 1200x1200 pixels. The maximum file size is 5120KB.
You can include up to 5 logos for each type of asset. Like their image counterparts, including as many logo variations as possible will improve ad performance.
Video assets
Then, there is the option to add video assets. If you don’t add a video asset, Google will create one for you using your headlines and images. Though these videos can see positive results, they may not always reflect your vision of how you would like to present the brand, so it’s best to create your own.
There’s only one video format for PMAX campaigns, which is specifically designed for YouTube ads, though video ads can also serve on the Display Network. You have the ability to include up to 5 video assets per PMAX campaign, and it’s best to include as many as possible. Videos must be at least 10 seconds long. You can choose between horizontal, vertical, and square aspect ratios. Note that Google may resize your videos automatically to make them fit in different placements.
Grouping assets properly
Keep in mind that when setting up asset groups, you will not be able to control which assets get served together within the group. For example, if you sell both sandals and boots, these different product types should have separate asset groups because you wouldn't want a headline about boots showing up with a picture of sandals. Therefore, you want to make sure all the assets within a given group are cohesive. Separate asset groups will also allow you to set up different targeting for each type of product. Make sure that every asset group has video, image, and text assets.
Reviewing asset performance
Once your PMAX campaign has run for a while and has gathered data, you will be able to check the Asset Report and see how each different asset is rated. It will state low, good, or best. However, if there are not enough impressions for Google to calculate a performance category, then it will state that there is not enough data. It is best to switch out low-performing assets with new ones and continually test new assets. But be sure to wait a few weeks before switching out assets so that they gather enough data to receive an accurate quality rating.
Including ad extensions
While setting up your assets, you should also include ad extensions. Treat the ad extensions as you would in search campaigns and make sure that they are relevant to the campaign and to any asset combinations within the campaign.
2. Apply specific targeting
Adding targeting when setting up a PMAX campaign will help speed up the learning process. You can use data from existing campaigns with similar products to help decide what targeting to apply. Depending on your goals, you can target more specific audiences that you know will convert, or you can include audiences that have similar interests to expand your reach.
Audience signals
Adding audience signals to Performance Max campaigns helps guide the algorithm. The algorithm will use these audience signals as suggestions when selecting the right users to serve ads to. Adding all of the possible audience signals is not required, but it will speed up the learning process. To select the right audience signals, use data from active campaigns and audiences and incorporate successful audiences and demographics into your PMAX targeting.
Interest categories
You can use industry knowledge to select interest categories that are related to the products you sell. Adding interest categories is a good way to capture your target audience as well as audiences that may have similar interests.
Demographic targets
There are other targeting options, such as demographics, that you can add right away. Or you can let the campaign run, analyze the data, and then set the demographics based on the results. For example, you may notice a specific age range is more likely to convert, and add that age range as a demographic target. And, of course, you can use data on users who previously interacted with your site, such as website visitors, to create retargeting audiences.
Search themes
Search themes are words or phrases that you expect your audience to search. These are similar to keywords, but they will be used as a suggestion to the algorithm rather than a requirement. The algorithm can still serve your ad to people who are not searching for those words or phrases. Adding search themes will improve targeting for new campaigns and for campaigns whose targeting settings aren’t specific enough. These are optional but are a great way to provide additional guidance to your campaigns.
3. Optimize your feed
When creating asset groups, it's important to optimize your product feed. Make sure that the products in each group match the assets. If your assets are split up by content category, then the products in each asset group should be split up the same way.
Product titles should provide an accurate description of the product, as any confusing language will decrease the click-through rate.
If there are products that are consistently driving low ROI, you should either exclude them from the asset group or put them into their own campaign with a small budget.
Also, be sure to regularly check that your feeds have been approved.
4. Don’t just rely on PMAX
It is best to use performance max campaigns alongside search campaigns. Using both will maximize visibility.
Search campaigns offer more control and the ability to target exact keywords. With PMAX, you can’t control which search queries your ads are served on. Rather, PMAX’s AI-powered technology analyzes your landing page content, product feed, and assets to decide which queries are relevant to your ads. Therefore, it’s best to target specific keywords with search campaigns and allow PMAX to drive incremental conversions with its AI-powered targeting.
5. Choose the right bid strategy
When selecting a bidding strategy for a new performance max campaign, choose either Maximize Conversions, which will aim to get as many conversions as possible within the provided budget, or Maximize Conversion Value, which will aim to get high-value conversions. The latter may drive fewer conversions, but the conversions it does drive will be more valuable.
Using Target ROAS or Target CPA is still an option, but it is best to wait to use them until the PMAX campaign has matured and gathered sufficient revenue and conversion data for the algorithm to reference.
Final thoughts
We highly recommend testing performance max campaigns to understand what they can do for your advertising program. To ensure the best outcome, set up your PMAX campaigns with quality assets and relevant audiences. The learning period can take up to six weeks, and making changes to the campaign during this period will make it take longer, so try to sit back and let it do its thing.
If you’re looking for a solution that enables you to manage your Google and Microsoft PMAX campaigns in one place, look no further than Marin. In our centralized interface, you can analyze, optimize, and report on all your cross-channel campaigns. Marin can even track your campaigns' performance for you and provide unique, publisher-independent recommendations for improvement. To learn more, click here to chat with a Marin Rep!
PrettyLittleThing Increases App Downloads by 22% with Apple Search Ads and Marin Bidding
Background
PrettyLittleThing is a fast-growing UK-based fashion e-commerce brand primarily aimed at providing trendy, unique clothing to 16 to 24-year-old women. Boohoo Group owns this company that services twelve different international markets.
They are continually expanding their global reach and with successful digital marketing strategies like the one outlined below, they are proving to have the revenue and growth to support this worldwide footprint. The company's main headquarters are in Manchester, with showrooms in London, Paris, Los Angeles, and Miami.